﻿Son of Mary I, Queen of the Scots, and of her consort, King Henry (Henry Stuart of Darnley, formerly Lord Darnley by courtesy and Duke of Albany and Earl of Ross); was proclaimed heir apparent to the throne of Scotland upon his birth; succeeded to the titles of his father after his assassination (10 Feb 1567); was proclaimed King of the Scots after his mother was compelled to abdicate (24 Jul 1567); did not formally assume the government until he reached the age of 20 while Scotland was governed by Regents, including James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray (22 Aug 1567 - 23 Jan 1570), Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox (27 Jan 1570 - 4 Sep 1571), John Erskine, 6th Earl of Mar (6 Sep 1571 - 28? Oct 1572), and James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton (24 Nov 1572 - 12 Mar 1578); was urged to assume the government by a Convention held at Stirling (8 Mar 1578); took active part in politics since 1581; was seized and detained in Ruthven Castle and Falkland by a group of Protestant nobles led by William Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie (1582-1583); under the Treaty of Berwick (1586), formed a defensive alliance with Elizabeth I of England who had imprisoned James's mother in 1568 and held her captive until her execution in 1587; through his great-grandmother Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII of England, was considered heir presumptive to the throne of England; took a long journey to Denmark and Norway (22 Oct 1589 - 1 May 1590), where he married Anna (24 Nov 1589), daughter of King Frederik 2. of Denmark and Norway; wrote a treatise on demonology and a book on kingship; succeeded Elizabeth I, when she died childless in 1603, and became the first ruler of the House of Stuart on the English throne; left Edniburgh (5/15 Apr 1603) and afterwards resided in England; authorized non-statutory use of the title "King of Great Britain" (1604); convoked the Hampton Court Conference (1604), at which he authorized a new translation of the Bible (King James Version); escaped assassination when the the authorities discovered the Gunpowder Plot, a conspiracy of Roman Catholics to blow up Parliament and the king on 5/15 Nov 1605; acted as a strong advocate of royal absolutism; denied a right of Parliament to assent new tax laws and levied duties without the Parliament's consent; dissolved Parliament in 1611 after the Commons did not agree to ratify the Great Contract, which would have led to the Crown giving up some feudal dues in return for an annual grant of £200,000; summoned Parliaments in 1614 (Addled Parliament) and in 1621, but failed to achieve any notable progress in negotiating money grants; formed an alliance with France and declared war on Spain, but his foreign policy found no support in the last Parliament summoned in 1624.

﻿Biographical sources: "King James VI of Scotland and James I of England", by Antonia Fraser (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1974); "Mary, Queen of Scots, 1542-1587: Extracts from the English, Spanish, and Venetian State Papers", ed. by Robert Sangster Rait (London: David Nutt, 1900). This source confirms that James was baptised 17 Dec 1566 as reported in the letter of 26 Dec 1566 written by a witness, M. Le Croc, to the Archbishop of Glasgow: "The baptism of the Prince was performed Tuesday last when he got the name of Charles James." (P. 101); "The Progresses, Processions, and Magnificent Festivities, of King James the First, His Royal Consort, Family, and Court", ed. by John Nichols (London: Printed by and for J.B. Nichols, 1828).

﻿

[1]

Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, 3:11-14.

[2]

Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, 3:11.

[3]

"Stuart Royal Proclamations, Volume 1: Royal Proclamations of King James I, 1603-1625", ed. by James F. Larkin and Paul L. Hughes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973), p. 1.

[4]

"The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland", ed. by David Masson (Edinburgh, 1884), series 1, vol. VI, Introduction, pp. v-vii, li-liii; ibid., pp. 549-554; "The History of the Kirk of Scotland", by David Calderwood (Edinburgh, 1845), vol. VI, p. 210.

[5]

"The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland", op. cit., series 1, vol. VII, p. 16; "Stuart Royal Proclamations", op. cit., pp. 18-19.